Angel
by IdiotWithaBoxandaScrewdriver
Summary: Angels weren't the strange metal creatures that the X-Laws commanded to kill all who stood in their path. She knew, she had met one.


Wolf: Just a little oneshot that popped into my mind as a result of wishing I could protect the many women in the world that live in fear because their country does not respect them as men are respected. If there's enough interest, and I can figure out a plot, I might turn it into something a little more.

It was a brief little interlude of peace. There was no Shaman fight for the day, so everyone was sort of relaxing in the Patch village, which either meant finding somewhere else to be, or hanging out at one of the cafes and restaurants in the village. Yoh and his friends chose the latter option and were sitting about on the patio of one of the cafes.

It wasn't long before the X-Laws took notice of them all conveniently in a group and took advantage of the opportunity to sit and once again convince Yoh and his friends to join the X-Laws' campaign. As usual, their appeals were falling on deaf ears with Yoh. Tamao, who was sitting and trying to make herself as small as possible without completely disappearing, was intimidated by them.

This wasn't a momentous feat, the truth was, many things intimidated Tamao, she was shy and easily agitated by nature. Anna could do it, as could a few of Yoh's friends when they were being rowdy, Hao and his crowd certainly frightened her, but to Tamao the X-Laws seemed like some kind of predator, just waiting to go into the kill.

"How can you deny that we are headed by the divine?" Marco was saying. "Our angels are proof of that."

"You still insist on calling those weak hunks of metal angels?" Tamao actually let a squeak at the sound of the new voice and tried to make herself even smaller as Hao sat down at another table, smirking smugly at the X-Laws' livid expressions.

"Get away from here, demon, this conversation is not for you." Marco snarled.

"If you wanted it to be private, you should have gone somewhere private." Hao replied smoothly. He reminded Tamao of some big cat, graceful, smooth, dangerous. He made her shiver, especially when he spoke in that deceptively friendly tone he liked to use.

"My followers do indeed carry angels, Hao." The Iron Maiden said in a toneless voice. "Your lies do nothing to change that." Hao scoffed loudly. "And what say you, young lady? Do you believe that they are angels?"

Tamao flinched when the Iron Maiden looked at her while saying those words, and quite suddenly, probably out of surprise, a single word was driven from her lips. "No."

Marco dropped his glasses in surprise and the Iron Maiden stared like she'd grown another head. Even Hao raised an eyebrow and the rest of them just were silent, their attentions all on her. She felt her face going bright red and started to tremble; she did not like being the center of attention one bit.

"How can you say that, girl?" Marco yelled, making Tamao cringe even more. A hand lightly touched her shoulder, bringing with it a calming aura that was Yoh's specialty. As always, his closeness made her blush madly. She wished, not for the first time, that it was her marrying him and not Anna.

"Leave her alone Marco." Yoh's gentle voice had a bit of a hard edge to it as he spoke. "You're scaring her."

"But how would she know that we do not possess the power of angels?" Marco blustered.

"I met one." Tamao said in a tiny voice. The fact that she had spoken again at all surprised her deeply, but then the incident had affected her deeply enough for her to feel it was important enough to speak.

"You met an angel?" This came from Cebin, the X-law with the strange mask over his face. It somewhat reminded her of Mikihisa's mask, but where Mikihisa's mask exuded an aura of mystery and wisdom, Cebin's reminded her of some frightening gargoyle. "You spoke to one."

"I-I didn't actually talk to her-"

"Her?" Marco repeated in astonishment.

"And she didn't talk to me." Tamao finished. "She was just... there."

"This is utter nonsense." Marco growled. "I think it's time we ended this conversation."

"I think that she should go on." Hao again, with his voice deceptively calm and pleasant. "I for one would like to hear more of this encounter."

Tamao snuck a glance at him sitting at the other table and saw no taunt in his eyes, just dark-eyed interest. He raised an elegant eyebrow at her and she looked away again. Yoh touched her shoulder again, soothing her.

"I think most of us would like to hear your story Tamao." He said kindly. "But if you're not comfortable telling it, then you don't need to. We won't pressure you."

Tamao found, quite alarmingly, that she was ready to tell her strange little tale. With a deep breath, she began to speak, and her mind travelled all those months back...

_I had been running errands in the city, and dawdled somewhat I'm afraid in the bustle of the downtown, so strange and wonderful for me, who had lived in a smaller village most of my life. But, anyways, it was quite dark by the time I was to go home, and quite late, and seeing as I had no car, or someone to call and bring me home, I had to take the bus back to the inn. _

_I was scared of the bus. I had heard many stories, and seen articles in the paper about how women were groped, propositioned to and even followed off and... violated in some dark corner when they used the bus, especially late at night. But what was I to do? There was no other way home, so I had to take the bus. _

_It was alright for the first couple of stops, no one suspicious-looking or nasty. But then a couple of men got on, and they did not look very nice. They were big, rough-looking men and they stared at me like I was some piece of meat. The one in particular had a leering look on his face that made my skin crawl. I began then to pray to anyone listening that I would make it back to the inn safely. _

_The one man moved to get up and I could feel my heart begin to beat rabbit-fast. I knew then that something awful was going to happen to me. But before he could completely stand I felt someone move beside me, standing up just by my seat. From the corner of my eye I saw the man slowly sit back down, an almost nervous expression on his face. _

_I didn't look directly at the person next to me at first, afraid that it would be something worse than those men, but I looked down at the floor and spied a pair of muddy, worn, working boots. Involuntarily my eyes travelled upwards, up sturdy, muscular legs coated in dust._

_My eyes took in a pair of equally dusty knee-length khaki shorts and a faded red tank top over a stocky frame that revealed that the person was most assuredly a woman. On one dusty, suntanned upper arm there were symbols, words I think though in a strange language that had a flowing beauty, tattooed there in black. I finally looked at the woman's face and found myself thinking how strange she looked._

_The strangeness did not come because her face was in any way deformed or distorted, but because it was pretty, very pretty, and young, which was a stark contrast to the tough, hardy look of the rest of her body. Adding to the strangeness was the fact that her hair, a dark dusty brown, was buzzed short all over her head. _

_As I stared she turned her attention to me and I found myself staring into eyes the colour of the ocean in a storm and had the same dangerously unpredictable quality to them. She smiled at me though, such a warm and reassuring smile that I instantly felt my heartbeat slow a little bit. She turned her face away from me again to stare at the men, and her face hardened and her eyes grew even more stormy, as though daring them to try anything. _

_They didn't do anything the rest of the trip either, they just sort of stared at anything but the woman standing beside me. The bus came to my stop and I nervously got up, knowing I still had a ways walk before I got to the inn, and stepped off the bus._

_She stepped off right behind me. I could hear her heavy boots thudding against the ground with every step, and the sound calmed me as I walked. She was right behind me too, any closer and she'd be stepping on my heels. I didn't turn back to look at her, I didn't need to, I knew she was there because of the thud of her boots against the ground. _

_She followed me right up to the front stoop of the inn. I turned around then, to thank her, but when I did, she had vanished. There was no sound of boots hitting the pavement, no sign that she had ever even been there at all._

Tamao finished her story to complete and utter silence. Everyone was staring at her again, and she looked down, blushing once more. Oddly enough it was Hao who broke the silence.

"Do you remember what the tattoo looked like?" He asked. Tamao nodded her head; the look of it she would never forget she supposed. "I have a knack for languages, perhaps I can translate, if you'll draw it out."

"Why would you do that?" Yoh asked curiously.

"I am as curious as anyone here I'm certain is as to what the tattoo meant." Hao replied haughtily. Tamao hurriedly scribbled out the elegant symbols she remembered and handed it to Hao with a shaking hand. He looked at it and both eyebrows lifted up.

"Interesting... this is Arabic. Haven't seen this in awhile." He murmured, half to himself. A faint frown creased his forehead for a moment before smoothing over. "Well, now that is interesting."

"What is it, Hao?" Yoh asked eagerly.

"If my translation is right, and it most certainly should be, the tattoo on your angel's arm says 'I am the light in the darkness.'"

"Seems like something an angel would have on her, doesn't it?" Faust mused.

"Preposterous." Marco muttered.

"No." Tamao said firmly. "She was an angel, no matter how anyone saw her she was an angel to me because she was there right when I needed her and asked for nothing in return." Yoh chuckled at her words.

"I think that is all that matters."

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Wolf: What do you think?


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